


fly me to the moon

by cloudies



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 02:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16525316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudies/pseuds/cloudies
Summary: Baz is nervous.Currently, he’s pacing around his and Simon’s flat, asking himself if he’s really ready to do this.He knows he wants to, more than anything, and he has wanted to for a very long time, but the matter at hand is whether he can do it without having a heart attack. (Vampires may not get sick, but can they die from anxiety?)He’s going to do this. Today. He’s made all the plans (it felt a little too close to plotting for comfort), they’re set in motion, and there’s no going back now.Baz is going to propose tonight.





	fly me to the moon

**Author's Note:**

> * indicates a switch between baz/simon pov
> 
> title is from the song fly me to the moon by frank sinatra

Baz is nervous.

Currently, he’s pacing around his and Simon’s flat, asking himself if he’s really ready to do this.

He knows he wants to, more than anything, and he has wanted to for a very long time, but the matter at hand is whether he can do it without having a heart attack. (Vampires may not get sick, but can they die from anxiety?)

He’s going to do this. Today. He’s made all the plans (it felt a little too close to plotting for comfort), they’re set in motion, and there’s no going back now.

Baz is going to propose tonight.

He checks the time -- 4:02 p.m. Simon’s shift ends in 28 minutes, and Baz wants to surprise him by picking him up. He checks his reflection in the mirror, fixing his hair one last time and spelling it in place, and takes a few deep breaths. He is the master of being cool. He was cool around Simon for eight years despite hopelessly pining. He’s had this plan for weeks. He can keep this secret for a few hours.

He gets off the Tube and walks the six minutes to Simon’s current job at a children’s home, arriving with five minutes to spare. He sits on the stairs leading up to the place -- he admires Simon’s ability to find joy working somewhere that can be so emotionally taxing. Admires isn’t quite the right word -- he’s seen him in action a couple of times, and he’s a ray of sunshine to everyone there, especially the kids, which was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. It continuously leaves him in awe, his compassion and liveliness.

The closer to 4:30 his watch reads, the more Baz’s heart feels like it’s at the end of long sprint, and he can’t stop bobbing his knee up and down and tapping his fingers on his legs. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, steadying himself, then distracts himself by looking up directions to their evening again, just in case he forgot something.

“Baz?” he hears. He looks up and sees Simon, smiling, just outside the doors. He’s got a questionable orange stain on the corner of his shirt, and marker and paint on his hands and arms.

Baz stands up, hands in his pockets, steady and cool as steel. “Snow. Fancy seeing you here,” he says, letting a smile creep up the corner of his mouth.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Simon asks, walking down to meet Baz and taking his hand.

“Usually, yes, but I left early.” Baz looks over his boyfriend once, slightly concerned at whatever has found its way on his shirt. “Did an oompa-loompa explode on you?”

“Oh -- no,” Simon says, looking down at the stain. “One of the littluns got sick and the home gave me one of these spare shirts, but it… has a questionable origin. I just want to go home and change.”

“Did you happen to get any in your hair?”

“No, why?”

Baz leans over and gives Simon a kiss on the top of his head. “That’s why.” He starts down the steps to street. 

“Let’s go home, then. Seems like you had a long day.”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. They loved it when I read them a few stories - they really like _Oh, The Places You’ll Go_. I feel like I’m really getting somewhere with Anthony, he’s making real progress, and it’s so good to feel like you’re making a difference….” 

Baz couldn’t help thinking about getting to do this for the rest of their lives: hearing about Simon’s day, holding his hand, going home together.

He never thought this could be a possibility for him. Ever. He never even thought about it, because it didn’t seem like it was within the scope of reality.

And now, here he is, in domestic bliss with the boy he’s loved for so many years, staring out at their future together, vast and open and full of possibilities. And he’s going to ask him to commit to it forever.

His voice catches in his throat for a moment after Simon asks him about his day.

*

Simon can’t tell quite what, but there’s something off with Baz. It’s been years since he realized he wasn’t a villain, but something’s telling him that he has a plot. He decides not to think about it; he probably bought a new niche kitchen appliance as a surprise for them to try out. (When Simon was shopping for his first flat, Baz was taken by the endless array of kitchen appliances that Normals have. He'd never seen a popcorn maker before, he'd always just used **Pop it like it's hot**. He may have bought a few too many items for Simon's first tiny kitchen, but he just found them so interesting and amusing.)

Once he’s changed into some cleaner clothes back home, he flops down on the couch next to Baz, and leans his head onto his chest, closing his eyes. It was a good day, but a tiring one.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Baz mumbles into his ear a couple minutes later, right as Simon starts snoring.

“Hmm?”

“We have plans tonight.”

Simon opens one eye and looks at Baz. “Did I forget about something?”

“While that’s always a possibility, no, not tonight.”

“What’s it, then?”

“I have a bit of a date night planned.”

That gets Simon to open both eyes and sit up to look at Baz. “Really?”

“Yes, really. We’re leaving at six thirty.”

Simon doesn’t really know where to go from there. Baz is romantic, but not a grand-romantic-gestures type. “I didn’t forget our anniversary, did I?”

“No.” Baz looks at Simon for a moment, then gives him a kiss on one of the moles on his cheek, and the smallest whisper of a smile. (Simon loves it when he smiles.) “I just -- I just wanted to do something nice.”

It’s cheesy, but something flutters in Simon’s chest.

Baz is always surprising him, in little ways -- slowly but surely, over the years, his walls have continued to come down. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be without them, and Simon doesn’t think he’d want that; it makes it sweeter when he reaches the softer part of Baz, and he wouldn’t know who he was without his sarcastic remarks.

“Thank you,” he says, and he means it sincerely.

He went all the way to the home to pick him up and go back to the flat together, just to see him a few minutes earlier. And he’s definitely got some extra plot to this, but Simon doesn’t quite care what that is. Right now, he’s mostly distracted by how Baz’s nice hair looks, despite the wind from the train and the drizzling rain from the walk…

“Did you spell your hair?”

Baz turns away from Simon, looking at the TV. “Anything good playing tonight? We have time.”

Okay. So that’s weird. Because Baz’s hair always looks naturally perfect no matter what he’s doing, and he knows that. He never feels the need to use magic on it. The only time he has was before his speech at his university graduation.

Maybe he’s nervous about something? But even when he’s nervous, Baz doesn’t let it get to him that much. 

Simon wonders about what on Earth his boyfriend could be planning….

*

An hour later, they’ve ordered and eaten (or in Simon’s case, devoured) their Chinese takeaway. (They order a lot of takeaway -- they don’t really go out to restaurants. They tried, but Simon said he found it weird when Baz just watched him the whole time.) (Simon says he’s more of a homebody anyway.)

Baz is trying to stay in the moment and not think about the _monumental and life-changing_ thing he is about to do, but every time Simon looks at him or looks at the TV or looks at his food like it’s a pot of gold, he can’t help thinking, _I love you and I want to marry you and I want to ask to marry you_.

He laughs when Simon gets sauce all down the front of his shirt and has to get changed again.

“Put on that nice red shirt Daphne bought you for Christmas,” he calls from the living room.

Simon peeks his head out from the bedroom door. “Why?”

“You look very handsome in it, Snow.”

“But I only wear it for special occasions.”

Baz shrugs. “It was just a suggestion.”

Simon looks at him for a second longer, then goes back in the bedroom.

*

Okay, so they’re definitely going to see Baz’s family, if he’s supposed to wear this shirt. What could possibly be going on with them that requires a surprise meeting together?

*

Simon comes out of the bedroom a couple minutes later, in the red shirt Baz had suggested (he just loves the way Simon looks in it), and knocks a now-visible end of one of his wings in the doorframe. Bunce’s spell, though ingenious, never lasts for long enough.

“Can you --” Simon starts.

“Over here.” Simon sits next to Baz, who casts **These aren’t the droids you’re looking for** \-- Baz had to endure several hours of a Star Wars marathon so he could learn the spell before Bunce moved to America, at Simon’s request (as in, ceaseless nagging).

After that, they’re out the door, and Baz’s anxiety starts to rise again.

“Where’re we off to?” Simon asks.

“It’s a surprise.” They’re walking down the street to the Tube, hand in hand, Baz holding an umbrella. It was still raining slightly, and the fall air was cool and crisp.

“Do we need a gift for your family?”

“What made you think we’re going to see my family?”

Simon looks down at his shirt. “We’re not seeing them,” Baz says. “That would not be a fun date night.”

“So what we’re going to do is fun?”

“No, Snow, we’re going to go do arithmetic for two hours.”

They ride the Tube for a while -- they’re basically going to other end of the city. When Baz was organizing this, he told Simon he was getting his driver’s licence renewed.

“Did you talk to Bunce today?” Baz asks, about halfway through the trip. The train is fairly quiet so they were able to get seats out of earshot from others, and Baz has his arm around Simon.

“We Facetimed over my lunch break. She’s doing really well, I think,” -- Simon can’t help but smile when he talks about Bunce -- “She’s at about four months now. She’s trying to finish up her research on 2000s pop culture and its effect on American magic before she goes on mat leave in a few months, so she’s been really busy. She’s still adjusting to the difference in the American magic realm there -- they don’t know that many other magickal families in the area, and she wants to raise her kids with exposure to lots of different magic.”

“I’m sure she’ll find some poor magickal souls and pester them until they have no choice but to become friends. Do you know when she’ll be visiting London next?”

Simon’s eyes go wide for a second -- Baz worries for a moment that Simon thinks Bunce is here -- but shakes his head slightly and says, “No… she said she wants to visit before she’s due, but it depends on if she can finish her research in time... and she probably won’t be able to visit for a while after the baby is born...”

Though they call and Facetime constantly, Simon still really misses his best friend.

Baz squeezes his shoulder. “If that’s the case, then we’ll just have to go down there and visit her ourselves, won’t we?”

Simon smiles, a little. “I can only the imagine the irony of being on an airplane while having wings. And the complications of it.”

“Well, if anyone can figure it out, it’s you and your dashing and intelligent companion.”

They finally reach their station, at nearly the end of the line. When they enter onto the street, Simon stops him, taking his arms in his hands and looking him straight in the eye.

“Hey,” he says.

Baz looks at him, and swallows nervously.

“Whatever you have planned -- I’m not sure what it is, but it’s obvious you’ve put quite a bit of thought into it, and I just want to say… whatever it is, thank you.” He reaches up, taking Baz by the neck, and kisses him. “I love you.”

Baz almost wants to do this now -- wouldn’t it be easier, right now? -- but instead kisses Simon on the mole under his left eye. “You’re ruining my element of surprise,” he says, but he can’t smiling. It feels like his heart could burst.

They only walk for a couple of minutes before Baz stops in front a small old building. Simon takes a couple seconds to look at it.

“The planetarium?”

Baz doesn’t say anything, keeping his face blank, and guides Simon in through the doors.

He stops at the front desk, and says, “Basilton Grimm-Pitch, here for a private show.”

The lady at the desk looks up and gives him a knowing smile -- she was here when he booked the evening. The employees had wondered why a 20-something guy wanted to rent out a planetarium, and he explained the best he could: “I’m proposing to boyfriend soon, and I want to do it here since we’ve both always loved the stars.” (Once they were quite possibly in space, together, which was part of the reasons why he chose this venue, but he couldn’t quite explain that to them.)

Simon stares at Baz incredulously, a look of bewilderment on his face. Baz wants to say, _Just wait till later, darling_.

“Your show will be starting in just a few minutes. You can stand by the doors over there -- they’ll be opening soon. Have a wonderful time.” She smiles so happily at Simon that it almost annoys Baz with how obvious it is.

*

There are a lot of things that Simon’s considering right now:

1\. Of all things he was expecting, a private show at the planetarium was not one of them.  
2\. The lady at the front desk looked like she knew something.  
3\. The fact Baz rented out the whole show for them. (Unless there are more people coming? He thought briefly before that Baz had gotten Penelope to come, but he realized quickly that he had just video-called her a few hours previous and she was definitely at her house.)  
4\. Baz is definitely still nervous.  
5\. Baz is looking very kissable.

He keeps staring at Baz (more than usual, that is) while they wait for the doors to open. He’s certain he still looks incredibly puzzled, which he is.

“Got a question, Snow?” Baz asks, looking suave.

“Well, I just hope there’s not a chimera in there.”

Before Baz has the chance to answer, with whichever snarky comment of the twelve he’s probably already thought out, the doors open, and a presenter wearing a lab coat steps out to greet them.

“Evening, gentlemen,” she says. “Welcome to our planetarium. If you want to take a seat inside, we’ll be starting in a minute.”

The presenter walks off, and as they walk into the room, Baz harrumphs, looking annoyed.

“What’s wrong?” Simon asks.

“The chimera’s late!”

Simon laughs, and when he sees Baz grinning, he knocks his arm against his playfully. They take the front seats, Baz wrapping his arm around Simon and using his other arm to hold hands, Simon draping his legs over Baz’s and resting his head on his shoulder. It’s not like there are any other audience members around to care.

When the presenter walks back in the room, Baz lets go of Simon and takes out his wand -- and casts a powerful **There’s nothing to see here** right at her. She looks confused for a second, then walks right back out and shuts the door.

This alarms Simon. “What the hell was that, Baz?”

“Just… just give me a moment.”

*

“I wanted this room just for us.”

Simon still looks worried -- this is the second hardest part of the plan, getting the presenter to leave and putting small wards on the door so no one can interrupt, without either spoiling anything or totally freaking Simon out. Though, the actual hardest part… is on a whole other level of terrifying.

Baz descends back down the stairs, after putting small spells on the doors to keep them closed for a little while. He takes both Simon’s hands, and tries to say as sincerely as he can: “Just trust me. Please. I want this to be beautiful. I want to make it perfect and beautiful for you.” Simon seems to relax, and Baz gives him a kiss.

He turns his back to Simon, facing the dome, which is full of fake, digital stars that just look like white pixels. It’s not a very impressive planetarium; he hopes he has enough magic in him to make it wondrous.

He takes a deep breath, and thinks back to that night in his bed at Watford, when he and Simon were up in space; he thinks about how much he loved him then, and how much he loves him now, and how ethereal the stars were.

“ **Fly me to the moon** ,” he starts, his wand pointing at what he believes is Polaris. “ **Let me play among the stars** ,” he continues; this line is the most important, and as he speaks it, the stars above begin to glow brighter, more naturally, and twinkle and shimmer. The room seems to grow bigger, and the sky more encapsulating. By the last word, there’s a shooting star flying across the sky.

“ **Let me see what spring is like** \--” he has a rhythm going now; he thinks that if he were to look behind him, the seats would have disappeared. Halfway through the phrase, he feels the touch of a hand on his back.

Simon.

The fact that he’s here, with him, is the most joyful feeling Baz could imagine right now -- Simon doesn’t have any magic left to pour into Baz, but Baz still feels all his love for him make his magic well up inside. “ **On Jupiter and Mars**.”

There’s a slight weightless feeling in the room, now, and the stars almost seem close enough to touch. Baz feels Simon wrap his arms around him from behind, and they sway a little, together.

Simon kisses the back of his neck. “I love you,” he says softly, “more than anything.”

This is it.

It’s happening now.

He had a speech planned out, but he’s not sure he’ll be able to get it right, even as good as he usually is with words.

Baz takes a deep breath, letting Simon’s hands on his stomach steady him. Then he turns around to face him.

“I always thought we were doomed,” he starts, slowly. “I thought I was destined to never be able to love you. I had no concept of the future, and it never occurred to me that one day we could have one together… Do you realize that, now, we’ve been together for longer than we were ever enemies?

“These years have been happier than anything I could have ever imagined for my life. Because of you. Sometimes, I cast **Rise and shine** on myself-- just to make sure I’m not dreaming.

“You are the most brave, honest, and compassionate person I know. You are the centre of my universe... I’ve loved you, almost since I met you…”

He stops for a moment to assess Simon’s reaction. He looks -- he looks excited.

“You are my past, my present, and my future. This future, that we have… I want to live it all with you.”

Baz breathes in for a moment, and gives Simon a kiss on the forehead, then gets down on one knee.

“Simon Snow… Simon. Will you marry me?”

*

Simon drops down to the floor and kisses him.

He’s never been one for words.

He kisses his mouth for a while, and as soon as he moves on to kissing his cheek and his jaw and the space just underneath his ear, Baz says, “Is that a yes?”

He tries to play it off cool, but Simon knows that he needs to hear it. But he also needs a few more seconds to kiss his boyfriend, or… fiance, now, before he’ll be capable of words. So instead he hums into his cheek and continues to kiss his face.

“Use your words, Simon,” Baz says, his voice soft as air.

Simon pulls back, and takes Baz’s face in both his hands, then rests their foreheads together.

“Baz, I’d marry you in a heartbeat.”

Baz lets out a breath, and they both laugh, the stars above them glowing bright.

**Author's Note:**

> epilogue: they found a reason for penny to come back :,) (can she be simon's best man???)
> 
> *
> 
> there are probably grammar mistakes in this i apologize if there are


End file.
